Two 911 Centers, Two Parks Departments and a Shelter Fight: Floyd County Pays Twice While New Albany's Budget Climbs to $64 Million

Pearl Street in downtown New Albany, looking north toward the Floyds Knobs. Photo: Stumbledwalker via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Floyd County taxpayers pay for two 911 centers. They also pay for two parks departments, one run by the City of New Albany and one run by the county. And the two governments have fought over who gets to control the animal shelter.

That inventory comes from a reporting tour of the county published this week by IndyStar and summarized by Focal News on Oct. 22. It is the kind of detail that rarely makes a campaign mailer, but it sits underneath nearly every question Floyd County will argue about between now and the 2027 city election.

The county grew. The city mostly did not.

Since 1980, Floyd County has added roughly 20,000 residents, according to the Focal News summary. New Albany, the county seat, added fewer than 1,000 over the same stretch. The growth went up the hill toward Floyds Knobs, where the median household income runs about twice what it is in the river valley below.

The political map follows the topography. In 2024, the Floyds Knobs precincts went strongly for President Trump, while most New Albany precincts went for Kamala Harris. Two electorates, two sets of priorities, and in several key areas, two separate bureaucracies doing the same job.

County Council President Danny Short, a Republican, described cooperation between the city and county as difficult, the report says, and he expects a close mayoral race.

A bigger budget, with hardly anyone watching

Down in the valley, the New Albany City Council gave final approval to the city's 2027 budget on Oct. 15. The total comes to $64 million, up from $59 million last year, the News and Tribune reported. That is an increase of roughly 8.5% in a single year.

Part of it is another round of raises for city employees, on top of the 10% raise every city employee received last year. Republican council members Stefanie Griffith and Scott Blair both raised concerns about granting the raise. Griffith voted against the general fund budget, the non-reverting budgets and the salary ordinance. Blair was absent for the final vote.

Griffith said she was grateful for the work behind the budget but was not comfortable granting another raise, "not that our employees don't deserve it," according to the News and Tribune. Council President Adam Dickey, the paper reported, expressed dismay that the necessity of the raise was in question at all.

The budget went through hearings over two months. Nobody from the public showed up to the final one.

Who is paying the bill

The households footing that bill are not all doing well. Hope Southern Indiana, a New Albany food pantry, took on more than 650 new clients in three months, interim leader Heather Liebert said in the reporting summarized by Focal News. Rents in the area now top $1,000 a month.

Business owners have their own complaints. Parker Huncilman told reporters that bridge tolls discourage Louisville workers from commuting across the river.

Sixteen years, and counting

Mayor Jeff Gahan, a Democrat, was first elected in 2011 and is in his fourth consecutive term, according to the city's own website. He is expected to seek a fifth, per Focal News. A Republican challenger has also announced.

The most familiar name in the race left the Republican Party to run. Gahan beat longtime state Rep. Ed Clere in 2023 with 52% of the vote, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported. In February, Clere quit the GOP, calling the party "unrecognizable" under Trump, and said he would run for mayor as an independent, LPM News reported. He was expelled from the House Republican caucus, and the Floyd County Republican Party said he had "stepped away from Republican values," pointing in part to redistricting.

Clere says voters are ready for a break, according to Focal News.

The question nobody has answered

No candidate has yet laid out a public plan for the duplicated services. That leaves residents with practical questions that do not depend on party: why two dispatch centers, why two parks payrolls, and what the shelter fight has cost. Those are questions for the City Council, the County Council and anyone asking Floyd County voters for a job in 2027.

The Hoosier Enquirer will keep asking them.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.